Ernst B. Haas

Ernst Bernard Haas (1924 – March 6, 2003) [1] was a German-American political scientist who made numerous contributions to theoretical discussions in the field of international relations.[2]

He was a leading authority on international relations theory,[1] and was the founder of neofunctionalism.

Haas was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and acted as a consultant to many national and international organizations.[1]

Early life

Haas was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1924 to a secular Jewish family.[1] He emigrated eventually to Chicago in the United States in 1938 due to Nazism and the rise of anti-semitism in Germany.[3]

He attended the University of Chicago and then worked in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service from 1943-46 where he studied Japanese and Japanese weapons.[4]

Following the war he studied at Columbia University, where he received his BS, followed by an MA. It was there, too, that he gained his PhD in public law and government in 1952.[1]

Academic career

“ Haas: ...the one theme that sort of underlies everything I've done... is the conditions under which the state as we understand it disappears, disintegrates, weakens, changes... why the interest in the state? Because I grew up under a system of an extraordinarily powerful state that victimized me, So my idea was; how in the future do we get rid of states of that kind? ”
— From Conversations with History, February 2002[5]

Haas began his academic career in 1951 at UC Berkeley, where he remained until his death.[6]

He was director of the UC Berkeley Institute for International Studies from 1969-73.[1]

He was Robson Professor of Government in the University of California, Berkeley, political science department.After he retired in June 1999, he continued as a researcher and teacher at Berkeley.[1]

He supervised many graduate students who also went on to successful careers.[6]

Main interests

Haas was mainly interested in international integration. Haas realized that traditional European politics could be dramatically changed by liberalizing movement of goods capital, and persons, but his analysis differed significantly from classical liberalism.

He is the founder of neofunctionalism as an approach to the study of integration.[2] Neofunctionalism recognizes the importance of national states but also stresses the roles of regional interest groups and the bureaucracy of regional organizations. Though the member states create the initial conditions, regional interest groups and international bureaucrats push the process forward, and national governments increasingly solve conflicts of interest by conferring more authority on the regional organizations, and citizens increasingly look to the regional organization for solutions to their problems.[2]

Private life

Haas was married to the late Hildegarde Vogel Haas for 57 years. He had a son, Peter M. Haas, who is a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.[1]

Works

Haas published numerous books, monographs and articles.

In 1997, The Uniting of Europe was chosen as one of the 50 most significant books in international relations in the twentieth century by the journal Foreign Affairs.[1][2]

His works include:

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hyman 2003
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ruggie et al. 2005
  3. ↑ Conversations with History, UC Berkeley on YouTube
  4. ↑ Conversations with History, UC Berkeley on YouTube
  5. ↑ Conversations with History, February 2002 on YouTube
  6. 1 2 Conversations with History: Ernst Haas on YouTube

References

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